xp_logs | Nathan and Monet, backdated to Monday morning

Backdated to Monday morning. Nathan is still feeling the effects of his trip to Wakanda, and Monet is still working on a report concerning the events in Mailuu-Suu. Neither are being happy, cheery morning people. Before the snark can really get going, Juliette distracts them.

When Monet walked through the office door, Nathan was crouched in front of the water cooler, staring into it with a narrow-eyed, extremely intent look. "There are patterns in the bubbles," he said, not looking at her. Over at her desk, Juliette was working patiently away, very obviously Not Paying Attention to Nathan.

"Really? Gi'ss a look." Monet hurried over to him and stared into the water cooler. There were bubbles visible but no patterns. She sighed briefly and gave Nathan a bright smile and said, in her cheeriest voice, "What sort of patterns do you think you see in there? Why don't you tell me about them?"

The narrow-eyed look was turned on her. "I'm addled, not three years old." He rose, groaning a little as his knees protested, and went over to sit down at the conference table. "Not even all that addled anymore. My mind's playing tricks on me still, though. I think it's much better not to visit the astral plane." He was going to make a note for the future about that.

"You were looking at bubbles, Nathan." Monet tapped the side of the cooler, watching the water move. Well, at least he was sedate-crazy this time. "You needed to be told that? I can tattoo it on your hands for you, if you'd like, so you know for next time."

"I didn't have much of a choice," Nathan pointed out with a scowl, and started rather aggressively sorting through the contents of his inbox. "My month to get my head screwed with, I suppose."

"Mmm. What's with that? Can't you draft someone else for it from here on?"

There was a touch of real amusement in the look he gave her in response to that question. "Are you offering?" he asked, not quite maliciously. "I suppose the occasional bit of mindfuckery can do wonderful things for your perspective..."

"No. No fucking way." Monet ran a hand through her hair and said, "But I hear you can get Somali orphans for cheap these days..."

Nathan pinged a paperclip off the back of her head with a flicker of telekinesis. "Hah, hah," he said dryly. "So how goes that report on Mailuu-Suu?" He had assigned it to her just to be petty, really.

"Oy! It's good. I can mention that it's a crap hole, right? And that the mutant stuff is kind of overshadowed by the general health stuff? I mean, the whole place is fuxored, but the mutants aren't doing too bad in comparison."

Nathan nodded. "We can send it to those more involved in addressing the general health stuff," he said. "These investigative trips can be useful even if they don't turn up much we can use." He'd learned not to regard such trips as wasted time.

"So... we went there, you and Angelo got whammoed by that stupid kid and it's all okay because other people can use the information? Actually, I'm guessing I don't put that in?" Monet shook her head. God, was that guard she'd hit even still alive?

Nathan noted what passed for a 'troubled' look, from Monet. "I wouldn't put it in, no," he said, not quite as dryly as he might have. "Too many of the organizations we work with already think Elpis is a bunch of cowboys."

"Dude. It's run by a bunch of ex mercenaries. Of course they think you're all a bunch of cowboys." It was a good thing she hadn't finished drafting that section.

"Interesting point," Juliette said, looking up from her work. "Do you know what percentage of our new hires worldwide do have ex-military backgrounds?"

"No," Nathan muttered, "but I'm sure you're going to tell me."

"About a third. It's a significant percentage."

"And how many are X-Men? Or are you counting that as military background?" Monet asked.

"World-wide hires, Monet. Not those of you here." Juliette shrugged. "I thought it was interesting. Uncle Joel mentioned it the other day at lunch. He seemed amused."

"Something about the travel experience and language skills we're looking for, I guess," Nathan mumbled, resolving to check on that statistic himself.

"Do you recruit for crazy as well, or does that just happen?" Monet carefully resisted the temptation to give Nathan a mental poke to see if his crazy was leaking. She wasn't suicidal.

Nathan eyed her. "No, it develops over time," he said steadily. "You should start seeing the first signs anytime now. It usually begins with frothing."

"Oh, wonderful."